#018 SalesKerplunkaFunnel – Know Your Niche

Hopefully, you’ve had a chance to read my earlier Blogpost #9 SalesKerplunkaFunnel (click here to get to it quickly, this Blogpost and the following few will probably make more sense if you do)

In the early 2000s I worked for a group of contact centres that decided to relocate their main offices to Belfast. Much as I loved Belfast, I didn’t want to up sticks and move there, so I took redundancy and went out on my own.

In the first year, I provided training for organisations as diverse as the NHS, SKY TV, a travel logistics company selling Tachographs, T-Mobile, Home Builders and Local Councils.
I had a great first year but my brother, Kenny, said, “that’s fantastic, but how are you going to repeat that again or even build on it? Who are you going to focus your marketing on? How are you going to find your market?”

I was a bit put out to begin with. I had had a cracking year and as long as it all came back in, I’d be having another cracking year. But it didn’t all come back in, some clients only wanted me in for a one of piece of work, some were now self-sufficient, some were now more than satisfied with the sales figures that they were achieving.
I was regarded as a bit of a Jack of all trades, doing almost anything and everything for almost anyone who asked.

It wasn’t what I wanted to be doing, I wanted to specialise in Sales and Customer Service for clients that I really liked and enjoyed working for and with. As Kenny said “my market was a mile wide, but an inch thin.” I had no niche in what I did and who I did it for.

I wanted to be an SME in my Marketplace. I wanted to be the Subject Market Expert in Sales and Customer Service, so I decided on two specific markets and went deep.

My market was now and inch wide but a mile deep, I have a very targetted audience but I have a many ways that I can help my customers with
My first year, whilst great was all over the place

I now focus on two key target markets – Contact Centres and Small Businesses but have a wide range of services that I can provide them